Music in the soul can be heard by the universe. ~ Lao Tzu
Finally, I have emerged from the studio with the completed audio and video of “Breath” which will be the premiere piece for my online music store. I have already written about “Breath” in Breathe Out, Breathe In and The Space Between, so this time I will let the music and video speak for itself.
In celebration of this new project, you can download an mp3 of the music for free this week only at CD Baby or my new Facebook Music Page (after Sunday, May 27, 11 P.M., it will return to $.99) If you like the music, please feel free to share the link with others. I particularly want to thank all of you who took the time to give me feedback about your digital music use in Your Opinion, Please. The overwhelming winning response was for downloading single mp3′s, followed by a wide variety of other approaches for acquiring and listening to music. I learned so much from all of you and I appreciate your help.
A special thanks goes to my musical partner and husband Bill Purse for doing such a great job as recording engineer and producer, as well as singing and playing bass and percussion. Thanks to friend and fellow composer David Borden for lending his breath to this project and to my friend Linda for teaching me how to breathe. Enjoy the music!
Months of work are coming to a peak! I have finished the audio for the first song, Breath, and am tweaking the video for it now. I hope to premiere it in a post this coming weekend.
In the meantime, I have started a music store on CD Baby which will also appear on my Facebook music page. Here’s my plan: record and release as a digital download one piece a month of what I am calling “songs from the garden.” In a year’s time, all the songs will then be gathered into a CD and released again as a CD download and/or a physical CD.
For all of my followers and visitors, I would love your feedback and opinions before I finalize the store and premiere the first piece. I have created a short poll of your preferences for online music which will help me decide the best way to proceed with presenting my work. Every song will be featured here “in entirety” on the blog as a music video but I am still trying to determine the best way to handle the mp3 downloads.
There are no “right or wrong” answers – results (by percentage) will be listed in the next post. I would love your opinion, please!
It was a beautiful day here in Western PA – skipper and black swallowtail butterflies flitted around the garden and dark rich colors blossomed everywhere. Here are a few photos of deep purple flowers. Next week, some new music!
A few weeks ago, in Breathe In, Breathe Out – I wrote about “Breath” – the piece I composed this spring as part of a larger piece The Four Elements. Deeply immersed in recording “Breath” this past week, I’ve also found the lyrics to this song moving from my head as an ongoing mantra to flooding my creative veins and taking over my life. It’s not only about remembering to breathe, it is about finding balance in “the space between.”
So what is “the space between”? When I practice deep breathing, I often imagine the astonishing amount of open space in our atomic structure, the space between the photons and electrons and neutrons, the vast space between the cellular structure of our bodies.
But I also think of the idea of liminal space.
Threshold between gardens
The term “liminal space” comes from the Latin wordlīmen, which in part signifies the boundary between one space and another, meaning that “betwixt and between” space, the threshold of a door or the threshold between stages of life. This is not a new idea by any means – consider the practice of carrying a bride over the threshold, of the ceremonies involved in the rite of passage from one stage of life to another, the superstitions and ritual practices surrounding the opening and closing of doors, windows, and other passageways. In garden design, the liminal structures of gates, archways and paths become the defining elements of the garden and invite the visitor to move through the space rather than look at it from a distance.
The “space between” – liminal space – also has deeply spiritual and metaphysical connotations. In Christian traditions, liminal space is the sacred space occupied by those seeking the presence of God, either as individuals or as a group gathered in worship. Like breathing in and out, one enters into a space of infinite possibilities, then leaves refreshed to engage in the world. For a thoughtful blog about this, see Rev. Jeff Johnson’s Liminal Space, especially his reflection on the day after Easter.
Fr. Richard Rohr, founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation, had this to say about liminal space. “Nothing good or creative emerges from business as usual. This is why much of the work of God is to get people into liminal space, and to keep them there long enough so they can learn something essential. It is the ultimate teachable space.. maybe the only one. Most spiritual giants try to live lives of “chronic liminality” in some sense. They know it is the only position that insures ongoing wisdom, broader perspective and ever-deeper compassion. The Jewish prophets… St. Francis, Gandhi, and John the Baptist come to mind.”
Window on the galaxy
As an artist and musician, I am always seeking the point of entry to liminal space which, for me, is the marker of creative engagement. Quantum physics suggests that all possibilities exist until observation or intention selects one possibility which then becomes “the” reality. As a composer, this is exactly the process through which I move. I start with an idea, I do research and entertain many possibilities, then I withdraw into that “space between” to let everything cook and stew while I seek to become quiet and receptive and balanced. I stand on the threshold, poised but not ready to commit. Stepping through the threshold, moving from possibility to a chosen act or decision, always seems the most difficult part – actually stepping through and be willing to choose “this” but not “that” becomes an act of creative courage.
A series of thresholds
Of course, that is only the first step; it is actually a series of decisions, reflections, and more decisions, an ongoing process of stepping into a threshold, a liminal space, then continuing on through the process, over and over again. Singer/songwriter and artist Joni Mitchell once drew an analogy between painting and composing – when the painting was finished, it was finished, but the music demanded an ongoing commitment to bring it to life – this is probably true of all performing arts. (Photo courtesy of Joka2000 on Flickr)
The next time I post, I hope to have a piece of music to share. For now, I stand poised on another threshold, seeking the silence and stillness between breaths that nourishes me, balances me and leads me to the next step, through the next doorway.
Reality is that place between the sea and the foam. Irish Proverb
“Blue, blue, my world is blue …” English lyrics to “L’Amour Est Bleu/Love is Blue”
These lyrics echoed through my head as I walked through my garden this weekend, surrounded by clouds of blue forget-me-nots, tall wands of Camassia quamash (a native wild hyacinth) and the shorter spires of English bluebells and purple Ajuga. The garden is in its bluest moment, in bright contrast to the golden leaves of Spireas and hostas and the fresh green foliage of the woods. My world is truly blue.
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Perhaps you remember the song “Love is Blue” written by Andre Popp – “the only number-one hit by a French artist to top the Billboard Hot 100 in America.” (Wikipedia) Made famous as an easy listening instrumental hit by French orchestra leader Paul Mauriat in 1968, it was more recently featured in “The Blue and the Gray” episode of The Simpsons in February, 2011. The song was first introduced through the Eurovision Song Contest in 1967 where it placed fourth. Here is charming footage of Greek singer Vicky Leandros singing “L’Amour Est Bleu” in the original television program that launched the song.
As someone who is attentive to both color and the elements of nature, I find it fascinating that the original French lyrics written by Pierre Cour compare the pain and beauty of love to both colors (blue and grey) AND elements (water and wind) while the English version by Brian Blackburn focuses only on colors (blue, grey, red, green, and black). Here are the original French lyrics with English translation and here are the English lyrics written by Blackburn.
In addition to the original French pop song and its instrumental version by Mauriat, it has been recorded in an instrumental rock version by Jeff Beck, and a soul version by the Dells. Here’s my favorite French version by Claudine Longet but the one that really knocks my musical socks off is the soul version by The Dells. They sang a medley of I Can Sing a Rainbow/Love is Blue that still gives me goosebumps for its power and passion – an incredible vocal group, The Dells take this song to a new level.
And finally, a video of Paul Mauriat (1925-2006) conducting his instrumental version of “Love is Blue.”
Finally, I have emerged from the studio with the completed audio and video of “Breath” which will be the premiere piece for my online music store. I have already written about “Breath” in Breathe Out, Breathe In and The Space Between, so this time I will let the music and video speak for itself.
